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A Kentucky woman was struck by a snake in her own home, after simply opening the front door. According to the mom, she didn't even get a look at the reptile before it struck.
Mara Jo Thomas has vowed to never own another door hanger after the snake used hers to cool down in the Kentucky heat.
The snake was first noticed by her daughter Kenley, who was taking out the trash when she spotted it wrapped around the home's "God Bless America" door hanger.
"Kenley was outside and saw it and started screaming bloody murder, so of course I open the door and boom: it got me!" wrote Thomas in a Facebook post about the bite.
"It bit me before I ever saw it, but I knew instantly that it did bite me," she told WPSD. "The heat, and the landscaping, just a combination, it was probably just trying to find somewhere cool to hide out."
Thomas visited the ER for the bite, unaware as to whether or not the snake could be venomous. "I went because I did not know if it was a venomous snake or not. We don't all study wildlife or know about reptiles," she wrote in the Facebook post.
Although Thomas' fears are valid, experts report that there's little chance of being bitten by a venomous snake in western Kentucky. Sgt. Daniel Richardson from Kentucky Fish and Wildlife told WPSD that it's very unlikely and "it's not a lot like what people think."
"It's probably hard to keep them away, but you can limit the places they have access to. They'll find lots of places that you wouldn't expect them to be, especially in this heat," he added.
Kentucky has just four venomous snakes: copperhead, cottonmouth, timber rattlesnake, and pigmy rattlesnake, all of which belong to a group called pit vipers.
Thomas said she plans to use the incident as inspiration for her work, naming a drink at her coffee shop after it.
Newsweek has contacted Mara Jo Thomas for comment.
From one Kentucky woman's hospital visit, to a man who probably should have visited the ER. Earlier this year, an Australian man chose not to visit a hospital after facing a sting from the world's most venomous fish.
Instead, as reported by Newsweek, he chose to sit back and drink red wine. His foot was soaked in hot water but he refused painkillers from a paramedic, and sent his friend to buy some wine and whiskey instead.
